A printing apparatus which prints double sides of a label with information using a thermal printer has a thermal head that may be provided in a direction perpendicular to a direction of conveying a label, and prints the label with information by making a printable region of the thermal head face the label.
Typically, a label is detachably stuck on a mount (or a liner), which is prepared and folded in a setting part in the form of a roll or a bellow and then is discharged from the setting part and conveyed to a thermal head. The label printed with information by the thermal head is peeled off from the mount for use.
However, the mount from which the label is removed may be often discarded with no particular use, which causes environmental issues.
For the purpose of addressing such an issue, a mount-free label (or a linerless label) has been used and is drawing attention as an environment-friendly medium.
Recently, there have been proposed techniques in which one side of a linerless label is printed for a later use as both front and rear surfaces. Then, the printed linerless label is folded at a position between two printed areas for use as the front and rear surfaces, which are attached to each other by facing two sticky backsides of the surfaces. The front and rear surfaces attached to each other are peeled off to attach the label to an article.
In addition, in recent years, there has been also proposed a mechanism for printing both sides of a printing medium with information at once. In addition, there has been proposed a labeler which uses a linerless label with front and rear surfaces, both of which are provided with printed areas, respectively. Accordingly, without having to fold the label after printing, the two surfaces attached to each other at sticky portions are peeled off to attach the label to an article.
However, in this labeler, thermal heads are arranged over a portion (e.g., a center portion) of the label with both end portions of the label (arranged in a direction perpendicular to a conveying direction of the label) extend out of a printable region of the thermal heads. Therefore, a blank space (unprinted area) remains in a folded portion of the label when the double-sided printed label is unfolded to be attached to an article, which may result in discontinuity of print information.